I'm hoping for a performance by Ronnie similar to his 2014 Masters performance. I still think his 2005 Masters final against Higgins was Ronnie at his very best. Don't think he will reach that standard ever again, but you never know. I hope he's been putting the practice hours in.

Holden Chinaski wrote:I'm hoping for a performance by Ronnie similar to his 2014 Masters performance. I still think his 2005 Masters final against Higgins was Ronnie at his very best. Don't think he will reach that standard ever again, but you never know. I hope he's been putting the practice hours in.

The Masters is my second favourite tournament.

Unfortunately, I don't think Ronnie will be at his best. But this is a great warm up for the bigger tournament to come.

Holden Chinaski wrote:I'm hoping for a performance by Ronnie similar to his 2014 Masters performance. I still think his 2005 Masters final against Higgins was Ronnie at his very best. Don't think he will reach that standard ever again, but you never know. I hope he's been putting the practice hours in.

The Masters is my second favourite tournament.

You shouldn't expect a peak Ronnie like in 2014 when he's pratically hasn't played competitively for 6 or 7 months, just two qualifying matches.

I do expect him to beat MJW, but beyond that and with Ronnie being rusty my hopes won't be too high, especially given his potencial opponent Selby at Quarters.

That being said, if there's one player out there who can suddenly win a tournament like this after almost not playing since Worlds, that player is Ronnie O'Sullivan, he's proved it in the past.

Holden Chinaski wrote:I'm hoping for a performance by Ronnie similar to his 2014 Masters performance. I still think his 2005 Masters final against Higgins was Ronnie at his very best. Don't think he will reach that standard ever again, but you never know. I hope he's been putting the practice hours in.

The Masters is my second favourite tournament.

You shouldn't expect a peak Ronnie like in 2014 when he's pratically hasn't played competitively for 6 or 7 months, just two qualifying matches.

I do expect him to beat MJW, but beyond that and with Ronnie being rusty my hopes won't be too high, especially given his potencial opponent Selby at Quarters.

That being said, if there's one player out there who can suddenly win a tournament like this after almost not playing since Worlds, that player is Ronnie O'Sullivan, he's proved it in the past.

I think we said this about Ronnie ahead of the 2013 World Championship - that he'd not have much trouble in the first round - but against stronger players he'd struggle. - Some of us even said that he shouldn't even compete at the Crucible, - as it wasn't fair on Ronnie to get beat in the first round - and we all know what happened there.

Holden Chinaski wrote:I'm hoping for a performance by Ronnie similar to his 2014 Masters performance. I still think his 2005 Masters final against Higgins was Ronnie at his very best. Don't think he will reach that standard ever again, but you never know. I hope he's been putting the practice hours in.

The Masters is my second favourite tournament.

You shouldn't expect a peak Ronnie like in 2014 when he's pratically hasn't played competitively for 6 or 7 months, just two qualifying matches.

I do expect him to beat MJW, but beyond that and with Ronnie being rusty my hopes won't be too high, especially given his potencial opponent Selby at Quarters.

That being said, if there's one player out there who can suddenly win a tournament like this after almost not playing since Worlds, that player is Ronnie O'Sullivan, he's proved it in the past.

I think we said this about Ronnie ahead of the 2013 World Championship - that he'd not have much trouble in the first round - but against stronger players he'd struggle. - Some of us even said that he shouldn't even compete at the Crucible, - as it wasn't fair on Ronnie to get beat in the first round - and we all know what happened there.

I believe Wild said something like "If Ronnie gets to the final I will run around naked in the street with a daffodil up my ass" before the 2013 World Championship.

Never underestimate Ronnie. He might play crap, or he might be unbeatable. You never know.

Holden Chinaski wrote:I believe Wild said something like "If Ronnie gets to the final I will run around naked in the street with a daffodil up my ass" before the 2013 World Championship.

Never underestimate Ronnie. He might play crap, or he might be unbeatable. You never know.

yeah, just saying to not get your hopes too high for that. Whilst I do believe he'll get past MJW, beyond that is just a Wild guess.

What I would absolutely love would be a Semi-Final meeting at a Major event like this between Higgins and Ronnie. I would love to see one final big match between them at a Major, one of the greatest rivarlies in Snooker deserves at least one big final match.

But yeah like I say I'm just hoping that Ronnie plays well and stays motivated, win or lose that's what I like to see from him.

Holden Chinaski wrote:I believe Wild said something like "If Ronnie gets to the final I will run around naked in the street with a daffodil up my ass" before the 2013 World Championship.

Never underestimate Ronnie. He might play crap, or he might be unbeatable. You never know.

yeah, just saying to not get your hopes too high for that. Whilst I do believe he'll get past MJW, beyond that is just a Wild guess.

What I would absolutely love would be a Semi-Final meeting at a Major event like this between Higgins and Ronnie. I would love to see one final big match between them at a Major, one of the greatest rivarlies in Snooker deserves at least one big final match.

But yeah like I say I'm just hoping that Ronnie plays well and stays motivated, win or lose that's what I like to see from him.

That would be great to see - and it's not completely unrealistic - Higgins played some quality stuff at the International, so I'm sure he's not a million miles from finding that form again. And Ronnie, well if it's his day, as we've seen time and time again, he can be mesmerising.

So, my mind is turning to next week now and The Masters. Got a few tickets, thinking of buying more when up there.

Also, what do you reckon the BBC's excellent features will be this time? I'm guessing a week-long discussion on Ronnie's OBE, some analysis of what shoe's Judd and his dad are both wearing and further opinion from Shaun Murphy on what causes a kick.

Andre147 wrote:But much better than Wembley arena no? Players and fans used to complain it was too big and had no great atmosphere.

I'll go to Ally Pally myself one day and see how good or how bad it is.

It was the chicken and the egg, really. The atmosphere was crap because nobody turned up, but people didn't bother turning up because the atmosphere was crap. Part of me always wanted to like Wembley Arena. It was a convenient walk from the tube station, and you could pop out for a McDonalds fairly conveniently between matches. But it had to be moved for a fresh start.

The staff at Wembley didn't help themselves though. I don't think they really knew how to run a snooker event. Example; I once turned up to the Wildcard round at 11am, but the person I went with had to drop their kid off at school first. So we arrived late for the first frame. So we stood about, waiting for the frame to be over. We had tickets that told us we had to specifically go through one entrance. Fine. Except the frame finished, and the member of staff manning the door wouldn't let anybody through. They didn't understand the rules to snooker, and had been told to only let people through the door when their manager gave them permission. (Their manager was supposed to radio message them at covenient times, and forgot to inform this person that frame 1 was over.) The fact that 50 people turned up at the same time asking to be let in, didn't give this person enough reason to maybe check with her manager whether we could be let in. So we missed frame 2 as well.

That wasn't the only thing like this that happened. Not what you need when you are struggling to get fans to come to an event that doesn't sell well.

Alexandra Palace is an improvement on that. But I just never quite found it to be as kicking, or as lively as it's reputation suggests. I know it is when the darts are on. And maybe I expected to much, but I somehow never felt it to be as exciting or wonderful as anybody says it was. It's improved over time. It now opens a bar area that has BBC 1 on, so you can wonder in for food and drinks and watch the game without being inside the arena, if you wish. But I always just found it to be lacking somehow.

I remember when I first went to Telford. The only other tournament I'd travelled to was Sheffield. (The Masters is a commute.) Now, I had a great time in Telford. Especially the third time I went. I was in a hotel next door, I could pop back in a few seconds. I remember England were away in the Ashes, and though I don't really like cricket, it was nice to get back at 10pm and there be live sport on. My snooker autograph book isn't as full as it is now, so I used to hang out, waiting for snooker players to turn up, with other such sad cases and have a chat. It was still somewhat a novelty to see players walk past me. It's not any more. The hotel I was in had Stephen Maguire, Rory McLeod, Shaun Murphy staying there. I even had a nice conversation over a pint in the bar with Rob Walker. We discussed Neil Robertson's temprement. And he asked that the hotel bar turn University Challenge off, and put Monday Night football on.

The fact that there was absolutely nothing in Telford to do didn't seem to matter. Though, if I went there now, I'd probably realise it was indeed a rubbish arena. As I've been to so many now, I have more basis for comparison.

In Coventry, instead of enjoying the fact I was near a snooker venue, I was having a pint and noticing how lacking in any of atmsophere it was considering how everybody there was there to see snooker.

SnookerFan wrote:Apparently the BBC have added Ebdon to their expert punditry team. (Says Ken Do on Twitter.)

theres only 1 table and 2 sessions every day and yet they have 8 commentators and 2 presenters

thats why theres talk of axing sport on BBC they spend too much on wages.

The possibility that the BBC may be expanding their team should be seen as a good sign for the future. It means they are still fully committed to covering snooker events.

On the other hand, not really sure what Ebdon can possibly bring to the table that will make a positive difference to the coverage. It's something that can be said about most of them as well, to be fair.

SnookerFan wrote:Apparently the BBC have added Ebdon to their expert punditry team. (Says Ken Do on Twitter.)

theres only 1 table and 2 sessions every day and yet they have 8 commentators and 2 presenters

thats why theres talk of axing sport on BBC they spend too much on wages.

The possibility that the BBC may be expanding their team should be seen as a good sign for the future. It means they are still fully committed to covering snooker events.

On the other hand, not really sure what Ebdon can possibly bring to the table that will make a positive difference to the coverage. It's something that can be said about most of them as well, to be fair.

He will send everyone to sleep by continuing to bang on about Veganism. It will just make snooker fans turn off and most of them will head out to buy a KFC bargain bucket or a Big Mac and fries. And Ebdon will get a blasting by health chiefs saying he is unintentionally contributing to Britain's obesity problem. Best to stick with Dennis Taylor talking about how he 'took a fiver off Willie on the golf course' this morning....